Fortunately it is possible to do this, because of what one of his colleagues described as his "autobiographical approach" to the study of language and literature. When asked to comment on the work of a 20th century poet or short story writer, he begins "I first met Faiz / Knshan Chandar / Manto in 1949 " and proceeds to tell us about this meeting, and his first response to the writer's work. The approach has much to recommend it: by speaking so directly about his own experience he has helped many others over the initial barriers to understanding. There is the added advantage that, scattered through the voluminous output of articles, duplicated notes and prefaces to books, we have a unique record of his own reflections about his life work for Urdu. "The Language of Ruler and Ruled" Ralph Russell's contact with Urdu speakers began when he was conscripted during the Second World War, and sent to serve on attachment to the Indian Army. I learnt Urdu during the war years because I wanted to communicate in the fullest possible sense of the word, with those who could not communicate through any other medium I took it as axiomatic that they like every other language community in the world, would have things to teach me They did That they and their literature have taught me more than I could have ever expected has been a bonus on top of that I want to help others, at every level, to have access to what Urdu speaking people can give them, and a means of communicating what they in turn can give to Urdu speaking people [197423] 1 This desire, maintained consistently over 40 years, has informed all his work for Urdu. The driving force came from his political values. As a student his energies were taken up with work for the communist movement. He had always enjoyed literature, and had studied both Latin and Greek with enjoyment; but had no academic ambition. The idea of becoming an Urdu scholar would never have occurred if his political sympathies had not first been engaged. Even before arriving in India he was convinced of the justice of the Indian struggle for independence, and everything he saw of the behavior of the British in India reinforced this. The dismissive attitude of his fellow army officers towards the people and culture around them made him very angry. Though they were all expected to learn some Urdu, few took this seriously. The only available course books reflected a world in which every Britisher was in some sense a representative of the ruling power, whose needs could be met by text- 1 For full references, see the bibliography at the end of the article Annual of Urdu Studies, #6 12